You Can Be Happy And In a Relationship While In College!

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Because I'm still (happily) dating my high school boyfriend who goes to a different school, I've experienced a slightly different college social life than the one you might imagine from stories, movies, or TV shows. I don't run into awkward hook-ups in between classes, I've never spent my night eyeing a room deciding who I wanted to hook up with, and I don't plan on going on a string of laughably bad dates.

While this does make my weekend nights a little bit less exciting to gossip about the next morning, I'm glad that I don't have to worry about a lot of the pressures, stresses, hard decision-making, and all-around tension that all too often accompanies single life.

Most people think about being single as being somehow freer than being in a relationship, and on this point I have to disagree. You might not be "tied down" to a person, but judgments, reputations, dangers, mistakes, regrets, and consumption do tie you down. Too many of my friends have spent too many hours stressing about what to wear, too many days waiting for him to call, and too many minutes that felt like years exchanging uncomfortable small talk with that boy from that night...what's his name again?

In addition to being positive, happiness-producing, self-building experiences, relationships can offer the comfort and stability that can allow you to focus on other things, like building relationships with your girlfriends, focusing on school, playing a sport, joining a club, or just having fun with a group of people you care about, no sexual tension included.

I'm not saying that being single is bad, it DEFINITELY has its perks, and you know just as well as I do that the excitement of crushes, pick-up lines, first kisses, movie dates, and late-night talks with cute boys at parties can be exciting and fun, I just want to offer a different perspective on the negative feelings that a lot of people associate with having a boyfriend freshman year of college.

But who cares what I think, what do YOU think? Is it better to be single or see someone in college? Or does it just depend on the person?